Time Flies

Wow that was fast.  I can't believe how long it's been.  It's as if we haven't gone over there for a while or done anything to the house.  Of course that's because we haven't gone over there for a while or done anything to the house.  We were interrupted by Thanksgiving and making merry and what not.  But now we're back in bizness!

So a few days ago Princie and I went out scouting for items for the house and came upon this treasure at the thrift store:

Isn't it great?!  I want to paint it white and put it in the pink master bedroom, where it will look wonderful.  That's the headboard I'm holding up and the footboard is nearly that tall too.  We also picked up an old daybed which I plan to paint white and put in the extra bedroom that I'm decorating. 

Princie and I decided to each take one of the extra bedrooms to do how ever we want.  Here's a picture of her choosing the paint for her bedroom a couple of days ago:

                                                                 Princie Picks Paint


Doesn't her hair look great? I'm jealous.  Anyway back to the paint. She did pick some and has mostly painted the bedroom.  It's not quite finished yet, so I thought I'd wait until it is to take a photo and put it on here. 

Today Terry and I went over there so he could paint the living room and while he worked on that, I would paint the master bath.  Here he is starting the painting:

See up there at the top where he started painting?  You can't really tell how it will look at this point.  Then he decided to take a minute to tape off the window edges. 

As I said earlier I painted the master bathroom while Terry was doing that, so here's a picture of it, even though it has a way to go. So far, it's the whitest place I've ever seen.  It's very white. It's a plain white box, and I haven't even painted the vanity white yet:

Taking a pic of it is difficult due to the size.  Now I am noticing how the tub, toilet, and sink are not white.  Which is the very reason the rest of it is getting painted white. Later on we'll add those POPS of color that I've heard so much about.

Back in the living room, Terry moved over to the other end of the living room and now it looks like this:

Here is Terry casually standing around in front of his creation:

He took care of the two ends with the high parts (14 feet 2 inches) and I plan to go do the shorter sides on Saturday.  I'm taking tomorrow to get serious about Christmas.  After that I'll be more casual.

Like Terry.

Love, Vicki

Change in the Weather

I had to take a small break from playing house and do a few things over here at that place we live.  But today I stopped by to check on The House since I hadn't been there for a couple days.  The view out the living room window changed!

It snowed a few inches last night!  This is quite early in the year for the first snow and it's also very cold and getting colder as the day goes on, so I just wanted to make sure everything was okay over there.  It is!

Here's another view of the back yard, from the bedroom:

Kind of makes me want to buy a Christmas present.

Ok that's all the news from here at The Nameless House. Stay warm!

Love Vicki

Ceilings - Nothing More Than Ceilings

I've been working on the master bedroom ceiling.  A little here, a little there.  You have to pace yourself with ceiling painting because of the looking up.  Your neck can get sore if you don't take a break every 1 - 2 minutes. It is now the most beautiful ceiling ever painted.  I think I was feeling my muse.  I also painted the (formerly red) ceiling fan blades with the same paint.

Here is a photo of the fabulous white ceiling project.  I'm feeling a little bit like Michelangelo!

I thought I was finished yesterday but when the sun was shining brightly and lighting the room really well, I could see the dreaded stripe around the edges from cutting in.  So this morning I dashed over there and touched up the edges.  Now it's perfect! 

That got me to looking at the living room ceiling and it has places that need some touching up too.  Poor Terry.

This morning I worked for about 15 minutes and 5 of those were cleaning my paint brush.  As I was leaving I happened to notice the burning bush out front.  It's burning now!

Isn't that pretty?

This afternoon we went out to the school to watch Max sing in the chorus.  It's one of his required classes.  It was a good time!

Love Vicki

Prep and an Installation

Tuesday, Princie and I went over to the house to do some general working.  I worked really hard painting the second coat of lovely pink paint in the master bedroom.  It wasn't dry when we stopped for the day so I don't have a pic of it yet.  However, while I did that Princie started preparing things for painting.  She started with removing wallpaper in the laundry room.  Thankfully, other than a border in one of the smaller bedrooms, there is no more wallpaper.  Here's an action shot of her working away!

After doing that for a while, she moved on to cleaning the kitchen cabinets.  Since they already look fine,  we decided not to paint them and instead just to clean and polish them up. That and new hardware will make them look great!  Here's a photo of Princie cleaning some woodwork:

She moved on after the cabinets, to applying spackle to all the holes from pictures on the walls - and doors - there were several of those.  Here she is filling a hole now!

Isn't that great?  Now all we need is an item for the living room to get us started and we'll pick out a color and paint it.  Princie is a good worker and I was thinking about giving her a promotion. What do you think?


On Monday we went out running the streets to look for very important items for the house.  We didn't find anything to buy, but while we were out shopping, we accidentally started looking at all the Christmas decorations, and look what we found!

Who woulda thunk??!!





Yesterday, Terry and I went over there so he could install the microwave while I painted the ceiling in the master bedroom.  I could do that one because it is not tall and is just a normal size tray ceiling. 

Here's a shot of Terry working hard on the installation:

Here is a final shot of the new stove and microwave. I didn't notice until it was finished that all the appliances are Whirlpool.  It's like we planned it, but like most of my projects, it just happened that way.

Isn't it beautiful?



While Terry was finishing up his project I notice that the leaves have stared falling from the two big trees in the back yard and they are very pretty:

And now you're all up to date!


Love Vicki

Kitchen Decision

Yesterday I decided to start doing something.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about home improvements but no doing.  If that worked, I'd be slim and fit and young, and possibly a dancer.  So I went over there with the intention of getting the kitchen ready for some painting.  I planned to paint it all white: cabinets, bead board back splash, walls, and trim.  In order of occurrence, according to some serious internet research, I needed to do the cabinets first.  I took off all the cabinet doors and then removed all the hardware from them and the drawers.

See?

After messing with the cabinets that much, I realized that they actually look pretty good and that I shouldn't paint them, but instead just clean and shine them up and put them back together with new hardware.  So that's the plan now, along with all that other stuff I mentioned painted white. I think it will look great!  There's the new microwave sitting there in the middle of the floor.  It's hard to heat your coffee in it right now. And that is the new stove installed there. It's great!  At that point, I came on home a little disappointed about not doing any painting.

So today I decided to start painting the master bedroom!  I am tired of planning and want to roar into action!  This is where I started:

And here I am nearing the end of the first coat.  It needs a second coat of the lovely pink paint, which is called Sherry Cream by Behr. It's really a pretty color!

While I was painting the bedroom, I could see this guy working on the back yard:

Still workin' hard!  So I went to check on what he was doing.  When I looked out the back door, he was checking the light next to the deck:

I told him to be careful and went back to painting.  Later after we were done (Terry) or quitting for the day (me), I went to look at the back yard results and it looks great!  Here's the back of the house from out  in the yard:

And here is another one:

He did a swell job.  The bushes were sort of out of control. Also out of the flower beds.  So now it's all neatened up and looking good.  That might be it for the year,  because it's gotten cold here. I was saying earlier that we ought to get a thermometer for that deck.

I just now polished off some Domino's pizza since I did manual labor today. It was great!

Love Vicki

Yard Work

I don't think I told you about the yard work Terry did. You know - in between the other manual labor.  The yard looked like this the day of the closing:

It was a little unkempt, and Terry really didn't like the banana tree.  What's a banana tree doing in Indiana?  I'm pretty sure no bananas would grow on it here.  Anyway, it was growing out of control, so Terry got over there and mowed the lawn and trimmed all the bushes.  So now it looks like this:

That arch shaped spot between the windows is just desperate for a decoration in my opinion.  I've kicked around several different ideas:

Here's a thing they're calling a pinwheel that I like a lot:

 

Then again, I kind of like this graffiti look too:

And Janice likes the idea of a pretty bench out there:

 Well that is a pretty cool bench isn't it?

Another idea I like is this bistro set.  I'm picturing it out there with some flowers growing around it and maybe a small something in a pot on the table and/or on a chair.

And the best part of this idea is that I have the very thing sitting my basement right now, doing nothing but collecting dust!  So the price is Free!  All we'd need to do is paint it white or some other light color. Pale blue?  Speaking of painting, should we think about painting the trim, shutters, door, etc?  Ideas? Lets have a vote on the color that's already there?  Now that it's gotten cold, that probably won't happen until next spring anyway.

I'd probably still want to put something actually on the house up above the table.  Or not!  I don't know. 

Well anyway, my train of thought derailed as it does so often.  I was originally going to brag on Terry's nice job on trimming and yard work.  He did good as usual. 

And mention his doing good reminds me.  We tried everything to get rid of the dog smell in there and after a very small amount of internet research, tried shampooing the carpet with vinegar.  Yes, vinegar, and it worked so well, we're both amazed.  And also sort of thrilled.

Living happily ever after now,

Love Vicki

White White White

We finally made a definite color decision. Princie and I went to the Home Depot and looked at many colors and decided on this white for the ceilings in the house.  The exotic name of it is 'ceiling white' by  Glidden.

Why, here's a picture of Terry, painting a ceiling now!

What a guy!  Gotta love a guy who will paint the ceilings for you!  They are turning out really nice and bright and clean with a flat finish.  They should go with anything else we decide to do in the rest of the place. 

Here's a shot of the ceiling in the kitchen which was the first one he did:

Actually, I had a picture of just the ceiling but it was hard to tell it was a picture of anything, so this is the ceiling and also the ceiling fan showing the very fancy light bulbs.

I know it seems like Terry is doing all the work but Princie and I are working very hard too. For instance, we went to a few thrift stores the other day looking for treasures for the house.  On another day, we looked all through Kohls for other house supplies.  And don't forget that Home Depot visit mentioned above.  Looking at all the paint chips is an important part of house fixing up. While there, we also helped out a fellow paint shopper with advice on paint colors for her two little grandchildren.  Pink and blue was the final decision, if you're wondering.

In addition to all the shopping, we have, with the help of Karen, managed to look at one bazillion photos on Pinterest and post all that we like for future reference.  In fact, I'm going to do some more research right now!

Love, Vicki

We Do Windows

We got sidetracked by real life for a few days and finally got back over to the swell new house yesterday. Followed by shopping for a couple of items.  After I cleaned around kitchen there was dirt on the floor and no broom, so you'll be glad to know that we're now the proud owners of a fine new broom and dust pan! 

Terry decided he'd like to clean the windows, which it turned were the dirtiest part of the house. He really enjoys a good clean window:

You gotta love a guy who also does windows!

And now they look wonderful!  I'm pretty sure that more light is coming in.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of the 10-foot-long aluminum mini blinds.  I imagine they were fancy and expensive 20 years ago but now they are bent and dirty.  Until we replace them with curtains, I like having them there to close. 



While Terry worked his way down the river, I was working hard too:

Someone has to measure things and take notes.  Don't you love the kitchen furniture?  We brought those over so we'd have a place to sit while we eat a hamburger (or take notes.)

You asked once where the pantry is. It's actually behind me in the photo above.  Here is a pic of the door:

Well that's all the excitement for today!  Wish me luck on the cabinet de-greasing!

Love, Vicki

And Then He Cleaned the Floors

Today Terry had Big Plans and was all excited to go shampoo the carpet in the Swell New House because we figured that was the source of the malodorous problem.  So after a lot of further ado, he sprang into  action and Got R Done.  I am pretty sure he had a swell time:

 Doesn't he look like a guy having some fun?  Anyway all the bedrooms and the living room are carpeted so he did them all.  It is now clean and smells a bazillion times better.  Here is the finished product:

It passed inspection!

The carpet does look good if you like beige. 

While he did that, I watched for a while and then came home and sewed and then walked back over to see how things were going.  He sent me after hamburgers and coffee and then I came back home for a while.  It occurs to me that this was going to be me and Princie doing fun projects but so far all you have are pictures of Terry working. hahahah!

Thanks Terry!

We love all the fun projects!

haha
Love Vicki

Never Ending Bulbs?

We've finished buying bulbs!  Yippee!  The ones we bought yesterday didn't cover every situation as we thought they would. The dining room ceiling fan takes bulbs with tiny little screw ends.  Again it's truly impressive how wonderful the difference is.  Everything in the house, including me, looks better in there now. It's much brighter and the color is a whole lot nicer. In the rooms where the lights are likely to be on a lot - the living room and kitchen - we put LED lights and the rest are just normal cost saving types.  The light fixtures in a couple of places will need to be replaced but we'll deal with those later.

Here's a photo of the light bulb man, answering the eternal question, "How many Terrys does it take to change a light bulb?

One!

And then once he finished in there the living room looked great!  You could read in there! Which reminds me, when I said we need to bring reading material, Terry looked at me like I was crazy. For some reason he doesn't see this house as a place of leisure, with reading and coffee drinking, the way I do.  In case you're wondering, I'm calculating the peak of the ceiling at about 14 feet.  The top of the windows is 10 feet and they are 10 feet wide.  I'm looking forward to making some curtains for them and removing the aluminum mini blinds.

 Here's a look at the dirty ceiling fan with really nice light bulbs.  All the LED bulbs say they will last 20 years and cost about 15 cents a year to run.  We have those in our living room too and really like them.

Finally, I was looking out the living room window that faces the back yard and guess what I saw??!! You can see our house from here!! So I took a photo of it. Can you see where it is?  Isn't that great?

Terry is all fired up to go over there and shampoo the carpet.  The carpet looks really nice, actually it looks new,  but it does not smell good so he has has to take action.  He's an action kind of guy. Right now he's getting his music operation ready to take over for listening while he works.  I guess the cassette player/radio doesn't work for him.

Well I've had a great birthday and now it's time to rest up from all the excitement and watch Game of Thrones. 

Love Vicki

First Visit

Today was exciting because we got to go over there a look around and while we were there the electricity was turned on!  woo hoo! So I took what I thought was LOTS of pictures and sure enough now that I'm home I don't have so many.  But I did get a swell picture of the keys to the ranch:

And another photo that tells a story is this fine piece of stereophonic equipment attached to the bottom of a kitchen cabinet!!

As you can see it even has a cassette player!!! What a lucky find!  Then we took a few notes and measurements and left for Home Depot and Walmart to pick up important items. The most important were light bulbs that were not curly.

Here's a pic of the sexy light/ceiling fan in the master bedroom:

Well, that's all the news for today.  I am very eager to go draw up a floor plan on grid paper right now.

Love Vicki

Once Upon a House

It's a House!

I think we need to keep track of the progress on this house. Here is a pic of it from the on line listing.  After we get the keys, I'll go over and take lots of photos which I think we should call "before."

Here's the first thing we bought for it:

Right there is also a major component of the color scheme for the entire house: WHITE

And then we'll add a few more colors. So far we seem to have narrowed it down to all of them.
That's all for right now!
Love Vicki